Sudan

Commons Urgent Question

The following Answer to an Urgent Question was given in the House of Commons on Wednesday 16 July.

“Sudan is the worst humanitarian crisis on record. Over 30 million people need aid, and 12 million people have been displaced. Famine is spreading fast, and new reports confirm that the situation will deteriorate in the next three months. Cholera is also now widespread.

Lifesaving assistance continues to be blocked by the parties. Last month, five aid workers were killed in an appalling attack on a UN convoy that was delivering lifesaving aid to those fleeing violence in El Fasher. The deliberate targeting of aid workers clearly violates international law. As the United Nations Security Council penholder on Sudan, the UK led calls for accountability for such attacks, including through the UK-penned press statement on 12 June. Last week, the International Criminal Court’s Office of the Prosecutor found reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity may well have been, and continue to be, committed in Darfur. The perpetrators must be held to account.

The UK continues to play a leading role in ensuring that aid gets to where it is most needed. In April, the Foreign Secretary brought together a broad coalition of partners to build consensus on strengthening humanitarian access. The co-chairs’ statement called on the parties to facilitate humanitarian access in accordance with their commitments in the Jeddah declaration. Over £810 million of funding for Sudan was announced, including £120 million of UK aid, which will support over 650,000 people this year.

In the absence of a ceasefire, the humanitarian situation will only worsen. We continue to call on the warring parties to place the interests of the Sudanese people over their pursuit of a military victory. The UK is working with our international partners to push the warring parties to return to the negotiating table and commit to a meaningful, sustainable ceasefire.

Any process that follows must be inclusive. We underline the importance of a return to civilian rule that is democratic and representative of the whole country. Moves by the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces to establish their own parallel Governments will only exacerbate de facto splits, and could lead to the permanent partition of Sudan. That is in no one’s interests.

We will continue to use all diplomatic tools at our disposal to protect civilians, get aid to those who need it most, and support a Sudanese-led peace process with civilians at its heart”.

12:09:00

My Lords, the situation in Sudan, as we have heard, is now a catastrophe. No part of the country or indeed any neighbouring country has been unaffected. Some 11 million people are displaced inside Sudan and millions more have fled to neighbouring countries. What actions are the Government taking to support countries bordering Sudan to provide for those displaced by the conflict and humanitarian crisis in the country?

We are working closely with countries that neighbour Sudan, for reasons that the noble Earl will understand. There has been enormous displacement of people. I went to Adré, on the border with Chad, and some of the accounts, particularly of sexual violence experienced by women who have walked many miles unaided to reach safety, will stay with me for ever. We are working bilaterally with the Government of Chad and in South Sudan to support those populations. We have pooled funds and we are working alongside the international community to do what we can. The Foreign Secretary held a conference a couple of months ago now to try to move this forward. It is incredibly frustrating and difficult. Until there is some semblance of peace in Sudan, I fear we are going to continue to see incredible hardship and devastation meted out on the innocent civilian population of that country.

My Lords, I declare my interest in my continuing active involvement with the Sumoud civilian network, which is seeking an end to the war and a future civilian Government of Sudan. I too commend the work of the diaspora community here in the UK, including groups such as Humanitarian Action for Sudan, chaired by Zeinab Badawi, whom I met yesterday. It is providing invaluable support that is desperately needed, especially to the emergency rooms. My question to the Minister relates to the most recent violence in El Fasher. It is now over a year since the UK successfully proposed United Nations Security Council Resolution 2736 on the protection of civilians. Notwithstanding the Secretary-General’s most recent call for ceasefires, we have seen the breaking of that, along with the most recent violence and the continuing persecution of civilians. What are the Government doing to ensure the enforcement of that resolution? There is no point in having Security Council resolutions unless they are enforced.

I often find myself asking what the point is of many of these declarations and resolutions in these situations. We need to fully understand this context, and I am sure the noble Lord does: enforcement would be great, but who is going to do it and how would it happen? We clearly need to see civilians protected, along with aid workers, who are being deliberately targeted. The targeting of refugee camps is abhorrent, but one of the most frustrating aspects of this situation is the unwillingness of the armed groups to enter into any kind of meaningful process that could bring about peace. We talk about peacekeeping and so on, but there is no peace to keep. At the moment, this is the worst situation on the planet from a humanitarian point of view, and my great fear is that, until those leaders decide it is in their best interests to enter into a process, it will get worse.

I express my gratitude to the Minister for describing what must have been a heart-rending nightmare, speaking to the innocent people, particularly the women and children, who have been suffering so dreadfully. I declare my interest as a member of the all-party parliamentary group. I have visited Sudan, and it is one of my favourite countries. It breaks my heart to see the utter devastation and the ruins in which it lies. My question follows on from the discussions many noble Lords and Members in the other place have had with representatives of the diaspora community, who say that Britain is best placed to discuss with its international partners, including in the Arab world, how to ensure that women and children are not raped and pillaged in the numbers that are happening right now. Can the Minister say something about any discussions she may be having about this dreadful situation and how we can work together with other nations to ensure that it comes to an end? A ceasefire is an absolute must now. I hear what she says about enforcing our will on others, but we have a lot more to do in ensuring that the message is powerful and clear that we will not stand for it.

The noble Baroness is right. I should have talked in response to an earlier comment about the strength of the diaspora community here in the UK and their fierce desire to see peace return to their beloved country. We are working closely with others to try, and that was the purpose of the conference we held earlier this year: to bring together Gulf states and others from across the world who want to see this situation improve, to consider what we can do together that would have an impact on the ground in Sudan. There are those who have more influence than others in this situation, and we are talking to them, as well as doing what we can ourselves, in the hope that at some point arms do not find their way into the hands of people who are using them against civilians, refugees and aid workers. My fear is that, until that happens, we will see the violence continue. As ever, the devastating consequences are felt most hard by women and the populations least able to protect themselves in Sudan.

My Lords, the Minister will know of my interest in the issue of preventing sexual violence in conflict, as I led on that and have visited Sudan. What engagement has taken place with SRSG Patten at the UN? There should be a refocusing of support for survivors at the heart of this. Let us not forget that this is not just about two warring parties; unfortunately, a lot of the women who take refuge in places like Darfur, tragically, sadly and abhorrently, have to suffer the same consequences again and again.

The noble Lord is right, and we are deeply concerned about that. I also commend the Duchess of Edinburgh for the work she has done; she has visited the border too and heard for herself the traumatic accounts that he alluded to in his question. My noble friend Lord Collins works through the UN on the issues that he is talking about, and we are working with our multilateral partners to provide the support that he is right to remind us will be needed for a long time for the women he has referred to.

My Lords, I declare my interest as chief executive of United Against Malnutrition and Hunger. We heard last night from diaspora representatives from Sudan about the devastating impact that malnutrition is having particularly on people suffering from diseases that would normally be minor, but who are dying of them because of malnourishment. What assessment have the Government made of using different and smaller agencies to ensure access on the ground, and are they prepared to take greater risks to reach people?

Yes, in short. We need to use a variety of agencies in order to reach people. The noble Lord is also right in what he says about nutrition: we see people who are badly malnourished, and that has other impacts. Cholera is now present, for example. Even the work that we do on the border in refugee camps is hampered by the condition that people find themselves in. Vaccinations become difficult because they are less effective when a child is malnourished. I fear that the impact of this is going to be very long lasting.

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Ahmad, referred to the extreme levels of sexual violence happening in Sudan, particularly against women and girls. As a result of a lack of funding, the UNFPA—the sexual and reproductive health agency—has been forced to withdraw from more than half of the 93 health facilities that it had been supporting in Sudan, meaning that women, girls and men who were victims of sexual violence are not getting the support that they were previously. Does the Minister agree that that is both a tragedy and a huge failure of the international community?

Yes, I am happy to agree with that; it is dreadful, and if there is a way that we can address this, then we should be doing it. We are doing what we can to support women and girls who have been through the most hideous of experiences. I have sat with them, looked them in the eye and heard what they have had to say. Where support can be provided, it is being provided, but the difficulty for any agency of operating in that context cannot be overestimated. It is incredibly challenging. I commend all those who are doing so, because they are putting their lives at risk every day. We see attacks on aid workers and the deliberate targeting of the delivery of food, including in camps. There is currently nowhere on earth that is as difficult as Sudan to operate in.